This invention relates to an electrical power pack which is useful to furnish power to an electrical starter motor of a fossil or synthetic fuel engine and/or to furnish the electrical power needed to maintain the operation of such an engine. This specification reads in terms of spark fired internal combustion engines, but it is to be understood that the power pack of the invention will be effective to supply electrical power to other vehicle mounted or stationary engines such, for example, as diesel, wankel or turbine engines, or DC electric motors, which use or require a direct current power source at or near a specified voltage for starting or for maintaining the operation thereof.
There are three principal recognized procedures for starting automotive vehicles in extreme cold weather situations and in other situations where the vehicle's regular battery has become rundown or otherwise defective to the point of not being able to furnish sufficient direct current power to start and/or maintain operation of its engine.
First, the vehicle engine battery can be recharged by connecting it to a battery charger or other outside source of direct current over an extended period of time, and when the battery is sufficiently recharged, utilizing it to start the engine of the automotive vehicle. The amount of direct current which can safely be fed to a dead or partially discharged battery, and the amount of the charge in the battery plus the ability of the battery to accept a rapid charge determines the time period over which the battery charger must be kept in place. This is usually a considerable length of time ranging from approximately one hour when very high and potentially dangerous amounts of current are fed to the battery to overnight or even longer where a safer and smaller charge is applied.
A patent which includes, among other things, a circuit to apply a charge to a vehicle's battery is U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,032 to Shaheen, granted July 4, 1972. See rectifying circuit 40 connected to battery 30 and specification, column 2, lines 1 through 9.
Second, so-called "jumper cables" can be used to hook a viable battery of a running automotive vehicle to the dead battery of the stalled vehicle. Usually the battery and generator of the operative vehicle are allowed to deliver a charge to the battery of the stalled vehicle for a sufficient length of time to start recharging the battery of the stalled vehicle at least to a point where the chemicals and plates in the battery in the stalled vehicle are somewhat heated to increase their chemical activity and their ability to receive and deliver power. Then the starter of the stalled vehicle is activated with the generator and battery of the operative vehicle still feeding power to the stalled engine system.
In conditions of extreme cold, this procedure will sometimes immediately provide enough power to the stalled vehicle's starter motor to at least allow the starter motor to turn over the stalled engine. After several attempts with a wait between times to allow the battery of the stalled vehicle to be recharged and further heated, the power delivered to the stalled vehicle is often sufficient to turn over the engine and still supply sufficient power to the ignition system to fire the plugs in the cylinders so that the stalled engine will start.
Use of this procedure requires that an operative automotive vehicle be brought into position adjacent the stalled vehicle so that the batteries are close enough to allow the jumper cables to be connected. In the typical ice and snow conditions of midwinter, this is always inconvenient and is often impossible.
A patent which utilizes the battery jumper system for starting stalled vehicles is U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,304 to Brandenburg, granted Mar. 14, 1978.
Third, in parts of the country where the temperature can range to 40.degree. below zero C and F, many service stations provide gasoline engine driven, direct current generators which are permanently or temporarily mounted in pickup truck beds or on tow trucks. These trucks can bring the motor-generators to positions near the stalled automotive vehicles, and extra long cables can be used to connect the portable motor-generators to the positive battery terminals and to ground on the stalled automotive vehicles. Each portable direct current generator is then run at a high speed to provide a substantial over-voltage to the battery and engine of the stalled vehicle, and the starter on the stalled vehicle is activated. This procedure is usually effective to start the engine of a stalled vehicle in a minimum amount of time, if time is figured from when the truck mounted motor-generator arrives at the site of the stalled vehicle.
A patent which shows a silicon controlled rectifier used in a circuit for supplying direct current to charge a battery is U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,504 to Gnaediner, granted Feb. 21, 1978. In this patent, the silicon controlled rectifier supplies a charging current to a battery by delivering direct current coming from the secondary of a transformer through two half wave rectifiers comprising a pair of diodes. The direct current from those diodes is also used to simultaneously power "D.C. loads such as lights, pumps, and the like in a recreational vehicle". When the current drain on the double half wave or full wave rectifier is more than can safely be delivered by it and the transformer, the heat generated by the diodes and by the silicon controlled rectifier is utilized to operate a thermally responsive switch which shuts down the input gate of the silicon controlled rectifier, interrupting its action to charge the battery until the heat has been dissipated.
It is evident that such circuitry will not be useful in providing a remotely controlled, silicon rectifier supplied, direct current from the secondary of a transformer to accomplish the purposes of the power pack of the present invention.
A circuit in which a half wave recitifer utilizing a diode is used in a conventional manner to charge a battery and then is later used with the opposite half wave rectifier to supply an "over-voltage" to an ignition system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,637 to Gray, granted on Apr. 24, 1973.
Other patents which were located in a preliminary search of the art related to the present invention are not believed to be particularly pertinent to the invention and are set out below as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,242 to Helling, granted July 8, 1975; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,133 to Bokern, granted June 29, 1976; and PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,706 to Schneider, granted Oct. 7, 1969.
Neither applicant nor his agents and those in privity with him know of any art closer than that listed and discussed above.
To provide a light, easily hand-carried portable power pack which can instantaneously deliver large amounts of direct current upon demand of a remote engine operator, and which is not subject to the drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention was developed.